After watching the offensive well run a little dry — limited to scoring one goal or fewer in five of the previous seven games — the Jets found their mojo and cruised to a 5-1 victory over the hard-charging Dallas Stars on Sunday afternoon.

Finding their template to success, the Jets were sound defensively, limiting the Stars to a power-play marker 1:56 into the second period on a puck that changed direction on multiple occasions on the way to the net.

The Jets were quicker in their reads, won a ton of puck battles and were relentless on the forecheck, using their speed to attack.

The payoff resulted in more scoring chances and a plethora of goals — including a couple of slump-busters for Kyle Connor (who snapped a 10-game goal and point drought) and Bryan Little (who snapped an 11-game goal-scoring drought).

Connor was the most dangerous Jets forward in Friday’s loss to the Penguins, racking up six shots on goal and eight shot attempts.

So when a point shot from Josh Morrissey banked off Blake Wheeler and landed on the tape of Connor in the slot, he was ready to rip his shot over the glove of Ben Bishop.

“Yeah, felt good. Nothing’s really changed too much from my game. I thought I was a little quicker tonight, played with lots of speed,” said Connor, who is up to 14 goals on the season. “I’m not going to sit back and be happy. It’s the same approach, I’m going to come to the rink every day with a sense of urgency and keep trying to improve.”

Just a day earlier, Little was discussing his drought and doing his best to stay positive.

With 17.2 seconds to go in regulation, Little buried a pass from Jack Roslovic into the yawning cage.

“It’s definitely a relief. For me and for the team, too. We’ve been struggling to score goals lately,” said Little. “You definitely, not relax a bit, but there is some weight off the shoulders. You get some confidence. That’s why they call it goal legs when you score during a game. It just feels like a weight has been lifted off you and you feel really good. So hopefully that feeling stays.”

Adam Lowry scored to tie the game exactly one minute after being called for goalie interference on a play that painted a picture of how the game would go for the home side.

Mathieu Perreault was ferocious on the forecheck, winning a puck battle along the wall and getting the puck in front to Lowry, who got a good shot off and buried his own rebound.

Although Lowry didn’t necessarily agree with the penalty, he certainly understood why the call was made.

“You know what, I talked to (the referee) after it and I put him in a tough position,” said Lowry. “If one of their bigger players bumps into (Connor Hellebuyck), we’re obviously going to be looking for a call there. If the puck ends up in the back of the net, (the Stars) are going to be up in arms. It’s a tough play. I’m reading that (Ben Bishop) is going to play it. He kind of mishandles it and I’m trying to get into the other lane and just continue on and he’s a big guy, so there’s not a lot of room behind the net. But at the end of the day, it’s on the ref to protect the goalies. I’m not going to really argue that call.”

Tyler Myers delivered the game-winning goal on a wraparound with 64 seconds to go in the second period.

Morrissey, into an empty net with 3:30 to play, rounded out the scoring for the Jets, who moved back into first place in the Central Division and face the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED

Slump busters

Bryan Little and Kyle Connor had both endured goal-scoring droughts of double digits, but they put those in the rearview mirror. Connor snapped his 10-gamer with a wicked wrister from the slot, while Little snapped an 11-game drought with a late power-play marker. Mathieu Perreault picked up his first point in seven games, while Mark Scheifele ended a four-game pointless drought as well.

Need for speed

The Jets didn’t need long to find their skating legs and quicker decision-making was also on the menu in a pivotal Central Division battle. The Jets had 23 shot-attempts in the first period – 13 on goal and another 10 that missed the net. The obscure stat was that they didn’t have a single shot blocked. After being held to one goal or fewer in five of the past seven games, the offensive outburst came at an opportune time for the Jets.

Get back

The Stars were 4-0-1 in their previous five games and had a chance to pull within two points of the Jets in the standings with a win. Instead, the Jets improved to 8-5 in Central Division games, evened the season series with the Stars at one game apiece and extended their lead to six points (while holding two games in hand on Dallas).

Steady showing

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck was beaten only once in this game and it was a power-play goal that changed direction multiple times on the way to the net. Hellebuyck’s 26-save showing allowed him to record his 18th win in 31 starts, while raising his save percentage to .910 and lowering his goals-against average to 2.83.

Surviving a scare

When defenceman Ben Chiarot went down the tunnel with what looked to be an upper-body injury, there was concern the Jets might have to finish the game with five blue-liners. But Chiarot returned to the ice about five minutes later and finished the contest with 20:01 of ice time. The Jets are already without Dustin Byfuglien for an extended period of time.

HALFWAY HOME

Sunday’s game marked the midway point of the season for the Jets, who are 26-13-2 and have 54 points.

For the sake of comparison, the Jets were 23-11-7, good for 53 points and in second place in the Central Division behind the Nashville Predators.

The Jets finished the campaign with a record of 52-20-10 and their 114 points set a single-season franchise record.

With that in mind, how do the Jets feel about the way the first half has gone?

“It’s been good,” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “A young team, and had some challenges with travel and a heavy schedule. And some injuries, at times. But we’re learning about our team. We’ve got players developing that are becoming different players. We can still look the same way year over year with that, we hope. But we’re comfortable where we’re at.”

There were plenty of questions about how the Jets would handle the rising expectations as the year began.

Certainly there have been some bumps in the road, but overall, the Jets have done a good job of avoiding any potential pitfalls.

“We’ve been handling them very well. I think we have a realistic understanding,” said Maurice. “We haven’t gotten too high when we went on our run, and we’ve been really good at choking off the situation that would make you doubt yourself a whole lot. We’ve been pretty consistent.”

Much like last season, the Jets have done a good job of preventing lengthy losing skids.

In 41 games, the Jets have only lost consecutive games on two occasions — that’s pretty much the picture of consistency.

But that doesn’t mean the Jets are allowing complacency to set in.

“It just shows that we can still get better,” said Little, when asked for his assessment of the first half. “We’re happy with where we’re at in the standings. We’ve played some good hockey, but overall, as good as we’ve played, we know we have another level that we can get to.”

Little is bang-on.

The Jets get full marks for finding a way to rise to the top of the Central Division (by one point over the Predators), but it’s fair to say that there haven’t been as many nights when they’ve been clicking on all cylinders.

The offensive attack continues to be led by Wheeler and Mark Scheifele, but this isn’t a two-man show either. There’s depth in the lineup and Patrik Laine has 24 goals, despite cooling off since a red-hot November that included him scoring 18 times.

On the back end, the young shutdown pair of Jacob Trouba and Morrissey continues to take strides, while Dustin Byfuglien was playing at an elite level before suffering an apparent ankle injury that will sideline him until at least late January.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck endured some rocky moments, but was able to reset with an excellent December and seems poised for a solid second half.

Backup Laurent Brossoit has been fantastic, going 8-1-1 with a 2.11 goals-against average and .939 save percentage to instil plenty of confidence in his teammates and his coach.

There has been plenty of growth within this group, players taking on larger roles throughout the lineup — even before injuries to Nikolaj Ehlers and Byfuglien.

Discipline crept back in as a concern in the early stages of the season — especially when the Jets took eight consecutive minors in a game against the Predators on Oct. 11.

But the Jets have limited the trips to the sin bin for an extended stretch and seem to have that under control.

THE NEXT STEP

Peaking in the playoffs is what each and every team strives for.

The Jets will continue to search for that level and thanks to the experience gained from reaching the Western Conference final last season, they have an idea of what it will take to do that.

“The games are going to get tougher as the season goes on. There are battles for that last playoff spot. It only gets harder from here. For us, it’s just to elevate our game and to get ready for that,” said Little, who was asked if there’s been any discussion about the playoffs among the Jets players. “Not really. There are 41 games, so we’re exactly half way. It’s in the back of your minds once you hit January, but we realize there is a lot of season left.”

And since there is a lot of season left, the Jets plan to put that time to good use — to tidy things up defensively while searching for other ways to find an edge.

“There are certain areas of our game that we need to work on and we’re continuing to work on it. It’s finding the consistency every night and bringing that intensity that when it comes playoff-time, we’re going to be hitting the ground running,” said Lowry. “Obviously, it’s tough to replicate that intensity and emotion every game, but it’s important that you almost prime yourself for that. If you look at the first half, we can be happy with the results and where we’re sitting, but we obviously know that we’re going to need to keep growing.

“I don’t know if there’s a specific goal. We’re coming to the rink and we’re trying to improve individual and as a team, so collectively we go out there every night we give ourselves the best chance to win. We have a lot of skill in this room and sometimes we get by on our top guys carrying us. It’s going to be important that we develop a formula for success that maybe if you’re not getting a lot of power plays in the playoffs or the other team’s top lines and top D pairings are shutting down your top lines, that you’re still finding ways to win. That’s by defending solidly and having a solid penalty kill and getting solid goaltending. That’s kind of what we’re going to look for in the second half.”

Should the Jets put those things together, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be battling for home-ice advantage during the second half of the season.

“We all know the second half tightens up. As it gets closer to the end of the season, it starts to look more and more like playoff hockey. It’s a certain way you have to play,” said Myers. “That’s what makes our group such a good team. We know how to play that type of game. If we stick to that style of hockey, we know we’ll be successful.”

RUTHERFORD WEIGHS IN

Maurice didn’t have much interest in patting himself on the back for being named to coach the Central Division in the NHL All-Star Game in San Jose later this month.

But the man who hired him for his first NHL job was more than happy to discuss Maurice’s strengths in a telephone interview on Saturday.

“He’s always been ahead of his time,” said Jim Rutherford, now the general manager of the Penguins. “Very mature, very aware of what’s going on around him. He knows how to read the players and how to treat them and pick out the issues that are going on with the team and fix them.”

Rutherford’s history with Maurice goes back to the Ontario Hockey League, where Maurice was a defenceman with the Windsor Compuware Spitfires from 1984-88 before an eye injury cut his playing career short.

“Yeah. He had great leadership qualities,” said Rutherford. “He really cares about people, he has great people skills and he knows how to deal with them in good and bad times. You could see that right back when he was 17 or 18 years old.”

Rutherford had a huge impact on Maurice’s career, hiring him first as an assistant coach at the OHL level, giving him a head coaching job at that level and then hiring him as an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers in 1995-96.

Just 12 games into the season, the 28 year old was promoted to the head job, replacing Paul Holmgren.

How did Rutherford know Maurice was ready?

“Well, you don’t know when a guy is ready totally, until you give him a chance,” said Rutherford. “Based on what he had done up to that point, he certainly had all of the qualities that qualified to become a head coach (in the NHL) at a young age. Of course, his age stood out when he started his (NHL) coaching career. At that point, he was certainly ready to do it.”

Rutherford is impressed with the way Maurice has continued to learn in his 20-plus seasons in the NHL.

“Well, anybody that has longevity in this league, you have to adapt to it,” said Rutherford. “Our game changes all the time, but (Maurice) is a very bright guy and he understands when changes are necessary.”

It’s the second trip to the NHL All-Star Game for Maurice, who was chosen to be an assistant coach by Doug MacLean in 1997.

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